CHICAGO -- Two Buckeyes led Ohio State with 19 points each in Friday's 71-50 win over Nebraska in a Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal. The No. 2 seed Buckeyes (24-7) will face No. 3 Michigan State in a semifinal at 4 p.m. Saturday (WOIO Ch. 19).

They arrived at those point totals in very, very different ways.

Sam Thompson's career-high 19 was a celebration, as the Chicago native played in the United Center for the first time. He'd been on track to play at the home of the Bulls for the city's high school title as a senior, but the game moved that year to Chicago State.

Big Ten Tournament

Deshaun Thomas' run-of-the-mill 19 was a lesson, coming only after coach Thad Matta yanked Thomas from the lineup less than four minutes in because of defensive lapses and a brief Thomas retort when Matta angrily addressed him in the huddle.

The Big Ten's leading scorer on the bench for more than three minutes while the Buckeyes were trailing by nine in their first postseason game? That's pretty serious business.

Ohio State's Sam ThompsonOhio State's Sam Thompson, a Chicago native, on playing in the United Center for the first time in the Buckeyes' 71-50 win over Nebraska in a Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal.

Matta said he'd tried to instill the message the night before and again Friday morning of "if you're not ready to go, you're going to get embarrassed." And then he saw his team getting embarrassed.

"Our body language wasn't good. Guys were complaining and you know, we're not good enough to play like that," Matta said.

He was every bit as demonstrably angry as he was at Evan Ravenel during the Northwestern game a couple weeks ago, but that was on the sideline and easily captured on TV. This was during a timeout, but the points were made as forcefully.

"That's part of Coach Matta being a competitor," Thomas said. "He wants to win and I want to win."

So Thomas had to sit and wait, saying in his younger days he "probably would have flipped," in response to the benching. This time, he just watched, and Matta gave him credit for being ready when it was time get back in.

"That's DT," teammate Lenzelle Smith Jr. said. "Sometimes his mind wanders, and that's a red flag when he comes out. He and coach got into it for a little bit. DT drifts off but he doesn't mean any harm. He slowly came back after sitting on the bench, and he recognized you can't just do what you want to do here. You've got to play defense.

"If you miss a shot, it's OK. I grabbed him and said, 'I'm going to give you the ball.' I told him that if I have a wide-open layup, I will dribble around five guys just to get you the ball. And that got him to laugh a little bit. If he's feeling good, we're feeling good. And I just want to win."

Once that was taken care of, and Aaron Craft and Shannon Scott started attacking on defense, grabbing two steals each but upsetting far more possessions, the Buckeyes were rolling. A 12-0 run gave them a 18-15 edge, and the lead was into the 20s by the middle of the second half, as the Buckeyes made 77 percent of their shots in the second half.

Then they could enjoy Thompson's excitement.

He played high school basketball at Whitney Young High School, with Marcus Jordan, Michael Jordan's son, and Thompson watched plenty of games here as a kid. The Buckeyes joked that they made a Chicago homecoming tour before the game, because they could all see how much this meant to him. Thompson made 8 of his 9 shots, including 3 of 4 3-pointers, and didn't turn the ball over in 28 minutes of action.

"I'd always looked forward to playing here," Thompson said. "It was big time. I've been coming here since I was 3 or 4 years old with my father. I felt good. I don't know what it was, but I think I had a step about me and I was feeling really good and I was able to make some plays."

The Buckeyes have a habit of starting slowly in this tournament. They got past Michigan on Evan Turner's nearly halfcourt heave in 2010, and Northwestern took the Buckeyes to overtime in 2011. But then they regroup. They've played in four straight Big Ten championships.

But if any of them aren't ready against the Spartans, well, Matta will bring them to the bench.

Video: The Ohio State Buckeyes routed Nebraska 71-50 in the Big Ten quarterfinals. Sam Thompson and Deshaun Thomas each scored 19. The Plain Dealer's Doug Lesmerises reports from the United Center.

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